


Blinding Light Illuminates

by wrelicofwren



Series: Illuminates [1]
Category: Sagas of Sundry, Sagas of Sundry: Dread
Genre: How Do I Tag, M/M, Mild Smut, Photography, attention to: notalwaysweak, you thought I wouldn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 09:55:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11621169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrelicofwren/pseuds/wrelicofwren
Summary: Kayden doesn’t know where all of the photos Tanner takes end up. But the ones from nights like these go in a little album that is carefully tucked under their box-spring mattress.





	Blinding Light Illuminates

**Author's Note:**

> This little snippet is set to the song The Space In Between by How to Destroy Angels, which is here and I recommend you listen to while reading. Also the reason for this title. Enjoy!

[Link to song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPXOC-Y713A)

Kayden doesn’t know where all of the photos Tanner takes end up. They disappear from frames, changed to others that he’s more pleased with that week, as he’s a man never truly happy with his work. Once, Kayden caught him burning a few in the kitchen, methodically looking at each with haunted eyes before he threw them onto the stovetop. Afterwards, Kayden only asked what he wanted for take-out that day. 

When Kayden gets home from the bar at four in the morning after work, sticky with alcohol and sweat, Tanner is usually asleep. Sometimes, he has to be up early the next day to get to a shoot, and Kayden is careful not to wake him. But it’s the nights he’s awake that are always interesting. 

It never begins the same, and tonight is no different. Tanner’s staring into the middle distance of the floor and the coffee table, sitting undisturbed and waiting. Waiting for him. Kayden walks into the dimly lit room with measured breaths, the five paces between them becoming four, three, two, one then nothing as he stops at Tanner’s side. His keys clatter against the little table as he tosses them into his roommate’s line of sight, and Tanner grabs his wrist before he can pull back. 

Kayden can barely contain himself. The grip is raw, just shy of painful, and Tanner’s head follows the line of his arm up, past his shoulder, to his face. The moment slows as Kayden looks over Tanner’s pale face and bloodshot eyes. The symptoms of nightmares. He tries to figure out the motive for that night, what purpose he serves, because Tanner has trouble with the words sometimes.

Tanner says, “I need you,” which can mean so many things.

Kayden says, “Okay,” because he’s fine with all of them. 

They have a method, after all.

Tanner stands, still holding his wrist possessively as he tugs him toward the bedroom. The blinds, which Tanner meticulously keeps closed during the day out of paranoia, are sprawled open, casting shadows criss-crossed by moonlight and street lamps. Kayden has a moment to glimpse the tripod set up near the bed before Tanner is ripping the t-shirt he’d changed into after work up over his head, and pressing him into the paint-chipped wall near the doorway with his whole body. 

‘One of _these_ nights then,’ he muses with Tanner’s mouth descending on his with enough force to bruise. His teeth bite at Kayden’s lips, and Kayden bites back, struggling to fight the grin coming over him as Tanner shapes him to the image in his mind. 

Kayden doesn’t know where all of the pictures go. But the ones from nights like these go in a little album that is carefully tucked under their box-spring mattress. Most of them are him, alone, some are him with Sat when she’s in town, but mostly it’s just him. Tanner has let him look in the past, and Kayden doesn’t really understand it. Kayden doesn’t see the beauty in them, even when Tanner tries to show him otherwise, but he doesn’t need to. These photos aren’t really for _Kayden_.

Short fingernails rake dull, stinging lines across his shoulder blades; the closest he comes to having wings of any kind. There are moments when Tanner just wants to hold on to him, and moments when he needs to dig in, to punish someone and by God, if Kayden isn’t there to be punished by him. Tanner marks him with his hands, over his ribs and stomach, and Kayden hisses into each little scratch, groaning as Tanner stops kissing him and mouths his way down over Kayden’s chin, neck and chest. His skin slowly becomes a patchwork of affection and pain, and by the time Tanner’s undone the button on his jeans, he’s mostly hard already. 

The hollow thud of Kayden’s head dropping back against the wall is echoed by his sigh of relief as Tanner licks a solid line along the underside of his cock. He toys with tip, smearing pre-come across his lips before taking him into his mouth. Kayden’s fingers sneak down to twine into the brunette locks as Tanner bobs along his shaft, long sweeping motions that leave him wanting and heady. All too soon, Tanner’s mouth leaves him, and Kayden clings to him in reflex before letting go of his hair. Tanner smiles briefly as he gets up and leads Kayden over to the bed. 

Kayden is compliant and quiet as Tanner moves him this way and that, shifting pillows and bed sheets to frame him just so in his camera’s view. His touch lingers adoringly over the reddened results of his earlier efforts, and Kayden can do little but wait, achingly hard as he lays half on his stomach. Tanner never asks Kayden to smile; only to look at him, so that’s what he does, watching the man line up the shot in partial silhouette. There’s a click of the camera, and a split-second of madness when he thinks Tanner will leave him like this, caught in the midst of arousal as he takes photos forever. He grinds into the mattress slightly, trying to find purchase in desperation, but Tanner’s hand reaches for his knee and he stills.

Another shot is taken, and then Tanner repositions him on his back, kissing him deeply and teasing a hand down his chest and over his inner thighs. God, he hates him sometimes. When Tanner finishes posing him in all his debauched glory and leaves to go back to the camera, Kayden makes an artistic choice of his own, moving a hand to his lower stomach. Tanner doesn’t notice immediately, taking the picture as intended. Kayden, whose eyes are locked firmly on Tanner, gets the pleasure of watching his head tilt slightly, and the sharp intake of breath as he notices Kayden slowly stroking himself with the back of his fingers. 

Still, Tanner doesn’t move to stop him, doesn’t lift his head from the viewfinder, and Kayden grows bold, taking his cock in hand fully. His relieved breath is complimented by a click of the camera, and he follows one of Tanner’s hands as it leaves the camera and reaches down into his own trousers. Kayden smiles in delight, biting his lower lip as he moves his hand in quickening strokes. Even with his eyes closed, the sound of Tanner’s stifled breaths across the room is clear, and the motions of his hand swiftly bring Kayden over the edge, spilling to a chorus of camera shutters. They’re not remotely finished though, as Kayden hears the camera body disengage from its stand and knows Tanner's coming to join him.

Kayden knows the place these pictures will go to. Each page in that album is dated, and Tanner keeps every one.


End file.
